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I'm not sure what weight he comes in at in a fantasy fight. Is he fighting in his era, the 50,s and 60's? Today? I think that is all relevant in a discussion like this. I do think he can beat some very good heavyweights and possibly beat some great ones. I can't prove it, but I can't prove he would lose either. What I'm 99% certain about is he wouldn't be fighting at the middleweight limit.
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One way to deal with this human tendency to see things with halycion vision days-gone-by, is to look collectively at some of the opinions. Dempsey and Marciano were regarded by many trainers to be a breed in themselves. Louis and Ali came up the flank of punditry opinion as the years past. In the eighties there were trainers who still gave accolodes to Johnson and jeffries, with a suprising appearance (regularly) of Fitzzimons.
I believe these collective opinions are of value, I do not see them as absolute. I trust them more when more than a few greats opine the same. For example, I would never, on my own free will to study boxing, assume Marciano was great. But, there are boxing men who say it is so. When you analyze marciano what you begin to see, is that, of the pressure guys, he was the most unrelenting. He was not even the greatest finisher, but, he could apply unrelenting pressure for round after round, in a manner that not even Frazier, or the great punchers (dempsey, Liston, Louis, etc) could do so. He won by making the other guy make mistakes...
Historically I look at Marciano as a bit of a Musashi (the great Japanese swordsman) archetype: Most people do not know that Musashi was not truly a great swordsman... He just knew how to kill people better and to make great swordsman do ****** things. One of his most famous duels was with Prince Koto, a renowned swordsman, a lot better trained than Musashi... Knowing this Musashi came to the contest late, in a boat. He taunted Koto from the boat until Koto came charging into the water... big mistake. With no mobility, Musashi put his sword down for a fine weapon of length... a Bo (stick) or, in this case, the Boat ore. I don't need to describe what he did to Koto's skull, but it was fatal. So... swordsman? Koto was exceptionally trained and might have been able to beat Musashi, but as someone focused on strategy and the means to kill by all means...Musashi won. marciano beat fighters like Walcot and Moore using his unrelenting pressure and ability to persevere, while never having the technical chops of either man.Comment
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That Conn fight is very interesting. There are times when Louis was less than stellar. I tend to look at the Conn fight as possibly one of these times, or, an example of how a great puncher, given 15 rounds, wins a fight with a great boxer. Louis had to be patient, and sure... he drew Conn into a fire fight, but his punching power prevailed, he caught his man with time to spare.Comment
But didn’t.
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